hare of
private property embarked on board of this richly freighted ship; their
respective friends having procured permission from government for that
purpose.

But it was as painful then to learn, as it will ever be to recollect,
that on the 23rd day of December preceding, the _Guardian_ struck against
an island of ice in latitude 45 degrees 54 minutes South, and longitude
41 degrees 30 minutes East, whereby she received so much injury, that
Lieutenant Riou was compelled, in order to save her from instantly
sinking, to throw overboard the greatest part of her valuable cargo both
on the public and private account. The stock was all killed, (seven
horses, sixteen cows, two bulls, a number of sheep, goats, and two deer,)
the garden destroyed, and the ship herself saved only by the
interposition of Providence, and the admirable conduct of the commander.

The _Guardian_ was a fast-sailing ship, and would probably have arrived
in the latter end of January or the beginning of February last. At that
period the large quantity of live stock in the colony was daily
increasing; the people required for labour were, comparatively with their
present state, strong and healthy; the necessity of dividing the
Convicts, and sending the _Sirius_ to Norfolk Island, would not have
existed; the ration of provisions, instead of the diminutions which had
been necessarily directed, would have been increased to the full
allowance; and the tillage of the ground consequently proceeded in with
that spirit which must be exerted to the utmost before the settlement
could render itself independent of the mother country for subsistence.

But to what a distance was that period now thrown by this unfortunate
accident, and by the delay which took place in the voyage of the _Lady
Juliana_! Government had placed a naval officer in this transport,
Lieutenant Thomas Edgar*, for the purpose of seeing justice done to the
convicts as to their provisions, cleanliness, etc. and to guard against
any unnecessary delays on the voyage. Being directed to follow the route
of the _Sirius_ and her convoy, he called at Teneriffe and St. Iago, stayed
seven weeks at Rio de Janeiro, and one month at the Cape of Good Hope;
completing his circuitous voyage of ten months duration by arriving here
on the 3rd day of June 1790.

[* He had sailed with the late Captain Cook.]

On Lieutenant Edgar's arrival at the Cape he found the _Guardian_ lying
there, Lieutenant Riou having jus